Plaue is a district of the city of

Brandenburg an der Havel Brandenburg an der Havel () is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, which served as the capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg until it was replaced by Berlin in 1417. With a population of 72,040 (as of 2020), it is located on the banks of the H ...

. On December 31, 2015, the district was recorded as having 2,593 inhabitants.

Geography

Plaue lies in the far west of the city administrative area, at the outflow of the

Havel The Havel () is a river in northeastern Germany, flowing through the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe and long. However, the direct distance from its source to its mo ...

from the Plauer See, northeast of the confluence of the Elbe-Havel Canal and the into the

Wendsee Wendsee is a lake in the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated to the west of the city of Brandenburg an der Havel, and is one of a number of directly linked lakes, along with the BreitlingseeMöserscher See Plauer See, and Quenzsee. The ...

. Plaue is on the right bank of the Havel, opposite a flatland that hosts the

Brandenburg-Briest Solarpark Brandenburg-Briest Solarpark is photovoltaic power station, located at a former military airfield in Brandenburg, Germany. At the time of its completion, it was the largest solar park in Europe. Equipped with Q-Cells solar modules, it consists of ...

. A language school was housed in the , which was owned by the

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

of until 1945. In addition to the old town center, the Plaue district also includes the residential areas of expansion, Charlottenhof, Gartenstadt, Margaretenhof, Neu Plaue, Plauerhof, Plauer Schleuse and Roberdam.

History

The area of Plaue is known to have been inhabited since the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. A Slavic

burial Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

ground dated to the period between the 10th to 12th centuries was discovered in the course of construction work on the Plauerhof street in the summer of 2001. This discovery was a surprise, because the preliminary investigations had only revealed prehistoric findings. The evaluation of the excavations showed that with around 170 documented burials it was the largest discovered burial ground from the period in

Havelland Geographically, the Havelland is the region around which the River Havel flows in a U-shape between Oranienburg to the northeast and Rhinow to the northwest. The northern boundary of the Havelland is formed by the River Rhin and the Rhin Canal. ...

up to that time. Most of the dead were buried in a stretched supine position with side arms and an approximate west–east orientation. Three young women were found in a crouched position ( de). The graves were arranged individually in rows, mostly without overlaps, which suggested an above-ground marking. The grave pits were in many cases provided with wooden fittings with clear protrusions from the side and cross boards. Some graves showed traces of charring on the wooden fittings, which indicated a rite of fire. Vascular accessories were found in about 30 percent of the graves. Other items such as jewelry and coins were only occasionally proven. The skeletons were examined by Bettina Jungklaus. However, the skeletons were mostly poorly preserved due to the sandy, acidic soil. 40 percent of the buried were in adulthood and 35 percent in childhood. This indicates rather poor living conditions for the rural population of Plaue. There were also signs of malnutrition. In 1197, a witness is named Henrycus de Plawe. In 1216 the "Fixed House", the castle, in Plaue was mentioned for the first time in a document. Next to this castle, which protected an important Havel crossing, was the

Kiez ''Kiez'' () (also: ''Kietz'') is a German word that refers to a city neighbourhood, a relatively small community within a larger town. The word is mainly used in Berlin and northern Germany. Similar quarters are called ''Veedel'' in Cologne and ' ...

. To the west and a little further from the castle was a street village without a market. The town of Plaue later emerged from these two civil settlements, which was first designated as such in 1411. The castle and the town were fiercely contested in the 13th and 14th centuries between the

Margraviate of Brandenburg The Margraviate of Brandenburg (german: link=no, Markgrafschaft Brandenburg) was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806 that played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe. Brandenburg developed out o ...

and the

Archbishopric of Magdeburg The Archbishopric of Magdeburg was a Roman Catholic archdiocese (969–1552) and Prince-Archbishopric (1180–1680) of the Holy Roman Empire centered on the city of Magdeburg on the Elbe River. Planned since 955 and established in 968, the Roma ...

. In 1421 it finally came to the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The town and castle were owned by various noble families, vassals of the Archbishop of Magdeburg or the Margrave of Brandenburg. Plaue was originally a city in the district of West Havelland in the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n government district of

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

. It was incorporated on July 25, 1952, together with Kirchmöser in the city of

.Gemeinden 1994 und ihre Veränderungen seit 01.01.1948 in den neuen Ländern, Verlag Metzler-Poeschel, Stuttgart 1995, , Hrsg.: Statistisches Bundesamt

References

Stadt-Brandenburg.deberliner-zeitung.deDas Dienstleistungsportal der Landesverwaltung

Projekt Plaue, mittel- bis spätslawisches Gräberfeld.
' In: ''anthropologie-jungklaus.de.'' Retrieved 4 June 2017. . In: Volume 13. Historischer Verein Brandenburg (Havel), Brandenburg an der Havel 2003,

OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...

183369573, pp. 14–19. Bettina Jungklaus, Wolfgang Niemeyer: . In: Archäologische Gesellschaft in Berlin und Brandenburg e. V. in Zsarb. mit dem Brandenburgischen Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologischen Landesmuseum und dem Landesdenkmalamt Berlin (Hrsg.): . Theiss, 2002, , pp. 102–104. . In: Felix Paul Biermann, Günter Mangelsdorf (Hrsg.): . Frankfurt am Main 2005, , pp. 167–173. . In: Felix Paul Biermann, Thomas Kersting (Hrsg.): . 2007, , pp. 399–408. {{Authority control Brandenburg an der Havel Early Slavic archaeology